JP/5/MUNA

JP/5/MUNA

NGOs provide more graft evidence against Muna officials

Muninggar Sri Saraswati
The Jakarta Post
Jakarta

A group of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) provided the
Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) on Monday with further
evidence to use in its report on alleged corruption within the
Muna administration in Southeast Sulawesi.

The NGOs, including Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) and the
Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency (FITRA), said that they
found more documents to back up the report on the illegal
auctioning of teakwood.

"We earlier discovered alleged state losses of only Rp 7
billion (US$777,000) caused by teakwood sales by the Muna
administration. Now, we have secured more documents revealing
that the state actually suffered some Rp 11 billion in losses,"
said La Ode Udin, spokesman for the NGOs.

He accused the Muna administration of embezzling some of the
money from auctions of illegally cut teakwood in 2002 and 2003.

Some local officials were tried at a district court in
Southeast Sulawesi, but prosecutors failed to locate those most
responsible for the scam.

During a court hearing on July 13, the Muna administration was
accused of involvement in illegal logging in the regency in a bid
to benefit from teakwood auctions.

According to the NGOs' report, officials in the Muna forestry
office allegedly ordered local residents to cut down teak trees
in a 4,000-hectare forest.

The felled trees, which were left in the forest by the
residents, were then seized by the forestry office and declared
illegal, the report claimed.

"The winners of bidding at the teak auction were particular
companies, some of which came from Java," it said.

According to a ministerial decree, it is the responsibility of
a regency administration to auction logs seized from illegal
activities in its area. The prosecutor must be consulted prior to
the auction.

Data from the NGOs shows that the volume of illegally felled
teak trees in Muna increased from 4.6 million cubic meters in
2002 to 7.6 million cubic meters last year.

"We urge the KPK to supervise the prosecution of the case to
ensure a fair trial. We also ask the commission to take over the
investigation into the case if prosecutors fail to do their jobs
properly," said Hidayatullah, another NGO activist.

Muna Regent Ridwan has denied the accusations, saying no state
revenue was lost from the teakwood auctions.

There were attempts by individuals to undermine his
administration, he said, adding that the allegations were
politically motivated.